Its Time for Another

Stan Alves didn't leave. He was sacked. Skilton became coach and advised him that he was going down a youth path and although he was the Captain he was sacking him. He got a call late in the pre season from the great Ronald Dale inviting him to join North. That Sept he was doing cartwheels on the wing as a Premiership player thanks to Skilton not him.

I think he's teaching the coaches and us the value in giving a player enough games to get their confidence up enough to overcome the yips so they can stop thinking every shot on goal could kill their career. He was still looking dodgy round one shooting for goal now he's over it and is starting to kick those across the body snaps that ever other player in the team misses except for Kossie and Fritsch. Plus his small forward defensive pressure is right up there with the best. His physicality leaves Bedford in his ashes.

I take it you've watched him play already this season. I haven't watched GWS. Out of interest how is Hogan going. From what I gather he should be finally in peak condition and have his head in the right space. This should be his year but I haven't read anything about him. As for Jefferson I did say he's half the size he needs to be but at least is showing signs he can put bulk on unlike some players who come in and can never bulk up to the right size. I don't expect to see him before 2025 unless some miraculous body bulking goes on between now and next season.

When they were drafted but it wouldn't be that much now.

Know what you mean about the past but think you're being a bit tough on Jefferson. He's already double the size he was when drafted so now only half the size he has to be. He's already put on more bulk than someone like Wattsy ever managed. He's also showing promising signs in competitiveness and contested marking. There's reasons to be a bit more optimistic than that.

Booing LJ ? You're kidding right. We should all be cheering him very loudly!!!. Grundy, Jefferson and something like picks 6 and 24 in a mega draft. Who's booing that. By time we play Freo in rd 11 they are likely to be 3-8. Their games up to then are Lions at Gabba, Hawks Home, Swans SCG, Cats Home, then us at the G. It doesn't get a lot better after that. Tigers H, GWS A, Dons H, Dogs A, Blues H, Pies A, Swans H, Cats A, Lions H, Eagles, Port H, Hawks A. I could see them ending up with 5-8 wins. Last year 6 wins = 16th. 8 wins = 14th & 13th. We've got to be a real show of getting something between pick 3 to 6 and picks 21 to 24 not adjusted for academy picks etc.

They're a feral bunch. The irony of relentlessly ferally booing a 30 yr old almost finished mediocre player who left, while cheering his replacement a 21 yr old, once in a generation player, who walked out on his club to go to them.

Thanks for another great DL interview. Got a lot of interesting info from him. Interesting now important his fitness training away from the club over the break was to his significant improvement and getting into the team. Also found it really interesting how much he had to do with the other WA boys in junior footy before being drafted even tough he was from Geraldton. Including playing with Riv even though he was drafted 3 years ahead of him and even knowing Kossie through his Geraldton cousins. He sounds pretty happy and settled in Melbourne

Love to hear what it has been like each step of the way moving over here. How hard was the move and the adjustment. Was it a hard decision to extend. And does he understand players deciding to fo home. Is there a special bond within the club between the WA boys or does coming from Geraldton make that irrelevant

I watched quite a few Casey games last season and it was very clear to me that although his running was good, he has a turn of pace and he got a decent amount of the ball, his kicking wasn't up to AFL standard. He continued to butcher it all season. Our collective kicking skills have improved so much IMO he wasn't up to making our first team. I have to admit the little I've seen of him this year he seems to have considerably improved but there's too many ahead of him now. Jordan is a better player and deserves to be consistently playing but I fear we might lose him because there are too many ahead of him for the roles he plays for us.

Anyone remember how Riv ended up at the Dees. 2019 was such a head scratching pick merry go round. We got pick 26 as part of Langdon trade. We gave Nth our 2020 1st rounder (became 2020 Pick 13 Tom Powell Nth) plus Freo's 26 (became pick 30 Harrison Jones Essendon) & Hawks pick 50 which we got for Frosty (which became Pick 46 Hugo Ralphsmith Tigers) and we got back pick 8. We gave pick 8 to Freo who picked Serong and they gave us 10 & 28 which got us Kossie and Riv. In fact there were another 8 picks involved in the initial Freo and Hawks deals which I won't even follow.

Out of interest do any of you guys have a handle on rotations while you're watching a game. I don't think I'd have a hope of tracking them. I've developed a fascination with the Stat of %Time On Ground. It gives a very interesting picture about how players are viewed internally, how they are managed etc. For instance Grundy is shouldering the ruck predominantly on his own while Gawn is out. He had a brilliant 22 disposals v Eagles to go with 33 Hitouts. I hadn't thought about it but I would have figured he's getting up around 85-90% game time. What would you guys guess ? It was actually the 3rd least of the whole team. Only 71%. Which means he was off the ground for a full quarter and a quarter of a quarter of the game. The only other players with less time were Jordan of course and then interestingly Sparrow with only 65%. The other interesting one was Trac with only 76% compared to Clarry with 87%. 14 players had more game time than him. The other one that's interesting is Viney who usually only plays around 76% compared to the other midfielders who are usually around 86%. My guess is his foot has to be managed. Rivers and Bowey before this year used to only play in the mid 60's. On the weekend it was 80% and 85%.

Who'd have thought we would be doing to a team what Collingwood did to us for all those years. Dawes Neeld Lumumba Howe Kennedy. On and on. Freo have a way to go but it's getting there. Hogan Jackson hopefully Jefferson and two mega stars in this years draft care of them. Although to be fair we can't really take the credit for it like Collingwood did. Peter Bell has to take all the credit.

Hunter 23 disposals 2 goals 467 metres gained DE% 73.9 Langdon 24 disposals 0 goals 298 metres gained DE% 70.8 Langdon 6 votes Hunter 1. It's all in the eye of the beholder. I maintain Hunter is going to be our added point of difference this year. Two Langdons instead of one.

Does higher scoring have to mean higher scores against. We are currently first for points for but 9th for points against. Last year we finished 1st for points against and I think second the year before. Is it as simple as deciding to have more players running ahead of the ball which results in more players being behind the ball chasing when the opposition get it back. Or is it something else. Do you agree that there seems to be a change in the connection i50 where forwards are leading more into the space in front of goals instead of leading out to the boundaries. I thought Chandler noticeably did this a few times himself and passing into that area. It also seemed there were more instances where players were looking into that space for options rather than having rushed snaps from acute angles.

Missed it. Anything to report.

Wow I've just watched him kick 8 in a row. Exactly the same every time. Not going to miss that shot this year.

Very strange time to be away from Pre Season training as it reaches it's final peak. Hope it's not a Go Home Factor already. Hopefully the 4 wheel drive pic is old.

Such an incredible set of highlights and that was just the goals. He's right up there with the best of all time IMHO. I'm not going to waste any emotional energy getting worked up about if he stays or goes. There's nothing any of us can do about it. I thank Scully for teaching me that no player is irreplaceable or worth getting worked up about. He turned into Hogan turned into May. Life goes on. But having said that what a player. Ever since I saw his pre draft highlights he has reminded me of Cyril Rioli. So I did a little bit of picking. Here's some stats to compare them. Kosie Cyril. Kosie Cyril Kosie Cyril Year 1 1 2 2 3 3 Games 14 25 25 19 23 20 Goals (Av) 7 (0.5) 24 (1.0) 40 (1.6) 21 (1.1) 41 (1.8) 27 (1.4) Tackles (Av) 35 (2.5) 87 (3.5) 87 (3.5) 89 (4.7) 62 (2.7). 98 (4.9) Some very interesting comparisons. The one that stands out for me as I always thought Kossie's defence work and tackling was way ahead of Cyril. Wrong. Also interesting that Kossie's tackling dropped off last season. But Kossie is clearly a much more substantial goal scorer than Cyril who kicked 42 in his 8th year and 47 in his 9th year.

Speak for yourself. My first ever day at the cricket was the 1975 Boxing Day test. I was driven there in the back of a panel van. No seat no seat belts in those days. The guys I went with took their own esky. You could do that back then. It might even have been two and drank the contents dry. Then having sat in the sun all day drinking probably 30 cans each they got in the panel van and drove home. No breath tests in those days. Ahhh the good old days. Have to admit I never did anything like that again. 6 kids in my school year died in car accidents in the first year out of school. I have never been a drink driver. Sorry I digress. Back to training bases.

You make some interesting points. There's a bit of a misconception that the facilities we are using now are substandard. As I understand it that's not correct. They are both excellent and the Club has spent $100's of thousands in the past couple of years updating the equipment at AAMI as well as the new facilities at Casey. Keep in mind that if we've put in that sort of money we are one of 3 or 4 clubs contributing to that investment at AAMI. So a lot of money has been spent there. When Richard Colless was the Swans President he put a syndicate together and they bought a property in the hear of Kings Cross and did it up as the Swans Social Club. It was quite impressive. You'd be very happy if it was a Demons Social Club. It was never supported by the Swans members and supporters and ended up closing and was a financial disaster. A lot of us have had a fantasy about having a permanent Social Club but II agree with you it might be no more than a fantasy that would be a financial disaster. I can't see why we can't set up a room like the Jim Stynes room at the G as a social Club post games. I doubt many people will turn up to the MCG precinct outside of game days. The main benefit will be getting the Admin and FD under the one roof. I hope it's on the AAMI car park overlooking Gosch's. That would be my pick. Otherwise like others I suspect it's more likely to end up in the new Sthn Stand. Facilities for the club and for MCC members and possibly the public in some form.

Genuine question. What better plan do you think the Club could have had for Jackson. Obviously it was a dud trade but what better trade do you think could have been achieved. They didn't have any better picks to offer. Similarly Port don't have a first rounder in this draft. They'll have to give up something serious to get a first rounder this year. Next year's first rounder won't do it. I hope. Surely they'd have to lose a player or players to make it happen this trade period. I'm sure the Club has tried very hard to avoid another Jackson circus so you'd have to think that's been a fail and the writing is on the wall.

You could be right. Of course the traditional Lyon gameplan involves camping 18 players in the backline. Wouldn't be counting on the Saints round 1, they are going to be cruelled with injuries the first part of the season and will probably struggle to recover.

Yep. I could. That would certainly free up a lot of my time permanently. The good news is it's now late May not Sept. So Premiership mission back on track. And marriage. 😎